Events of significant public interest often, and in fact usually, occur at locations remote from news broadcasting studios or other fixed newsgathering and distribution facilities. In order to provide reportage from locations where news is actually happening, newsgathering organizations typically employ specially equipped mobile resources, such as news vehicles having microwave and/or satellite communications capability, to provide live or real-time video coverage of remote newsworthy events as they unfold. Despite their great utility, news vehicles conventionally equipped with microwave and/or satellite communications systems are very expensive, and each one may represent a substantial investment of precious financial resources. Consequently, there is a relatively low upper limit to the number of conventionally equipped news vehicles that any single news organization can afford to field.
Nevertheless, and particularly in urban areas and their environs having dispersed populations, significant events may tend to occur often and may occur concurrently in locations remote both from the newsgathering facility and from one another. Moreover, the remote locations at which these events occur may be highly dynamic, with action or objects of interest distributed across a wide or even surrounding field of view. Under those circumstances, the capture and distribution of high resolution panoramic video images, such as high definition (HD) panoramic images covering an up to three hundred and sixty degree (360°) horizontal and up to one hundred and eighty degree (180°) vertical field of view may be highly desirable. However, it is both technically challenging and financially costly to generate live panoramic HD video content and to distribute that live panoramic content in real-time from a remote location. Consequently, at present it is practically impossible for panoramic video content relevant to all or even most events of interest to be captured, processed, and distributed live or in real-time using conventionally equipped news vehicles.